Siddiqui: Driven to distraction by Stephen Harper’s limousines in India

Which tourist turns up at the Taj Mahal in a suit and tie? The same one who turns up in the Mexican desert in a fishing vest and on a Colombian beach in a crisp white shirt and pants rolled up the shins. Stephen Harper.

Which tourist turns up at the Taj Mahal in a suit and tie? The same one who turns up in the Mexican desert in a fishing vest and on a Colombian beach in a crisp white shirt and pants rolled up the shins. Stephen Harper, that is.

Which prime minister of multicultural Canada, circa 2012, thinks that the best non-token use of his three Conservative Indo-Canadian MPs flying with him on a trade trip to India is to have them brought up to his private cabin to be photographed eating samosas? Harper, that is.

Which world leader flies his/her own bullet-proof limos to India? American presidents — they usually take theirs wherever they go, on the assumption that they are not safe anywhere. Who else? Harper, that is.

In Agra, home of the Taj, he was chauffeured around in a Chevy Suburban SUV. And in New Delhi, the capital, in his Cadillac.

It seems his hosts had offered only the Hindustan Ambassador, a small sedan that hasn’t changed in style for 40 years. That’s the one the Indian president and prime ministers use. Theirs are armour-plated, all right. But in the land of Mahatma Gandhi — who went about in loincloth, on foot, in order to identify with the masses — no Indian politician, no matter how high and mighty, dare use anything other than a modest home-made vehicle.

Setting aside American presidents, who are understood to inhabit a different universe, one cannot think of a worse way for a visiting politician to insult the Indian hosts than by bringing along his own cars. Like carrying your own chair to someone’s house for dinner.

It’s not clear whether Harper’s cars were hauled there for reasons of esthetics or security, and at what cost.

Reaction in Canada was swift. The websites of the Star, the Globe, the CBC and others have been inundated with comments about costs and also about the prime minister’s “vanity,” “sense of self-importance,” “delusions of grandeur,” etc.

His aides, in full-fledged damage control, tried to make it an issue of security, saying it’s the Mounties who make that call. As they had when they shipped limos to Haiti and Afghanistan for Harper’s visits there.

But India is not Haiti or Afghanistan.

Indian security, alert to past terrorism, is deemed to be good enough for visiting leaders, of whom there has been a virtual parade in recent years.

If the decision on the limos was all RCMP, Harper should have vetoed it. Besides insulting his hosts and angering Canadians back home, he made the limos the story, not his much-needed trade mission.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.